New EU leaders need to lay out visions for unity and growth
- China and European bloc are united over multilateralism and there will be no change with fresh faces at top, although some concerns have to be addressed
The manner in which the 28-member European Union’s top jobs were chosen was not through democratic accountability as some would like, instead being a closed-door process of horse-trading and compromise among leaders. But those who triumphed would seem well suited, having the necessary experience and abilities. German defence minister Ursula von der Leyen has been picked to be European Commission president, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel tapped to lead the European Council, outgoing International Monetary Fund managing director and former French finance minister Christine Lagarde appointed head of the European Central Bank, and Spain’s foreign minister, Josep Borrell, named EU foreign policy chief. Women have been given leading positions for the first time, but as symbolically important as that is in a male-dominated political landscape, of greater concern to Beijing is whether it will continue to have good relations with its biggest trading partner.
EU leaders strike deal to give two top jobs to women for first time
A vote by the European parliament later this month is required to confirm the positions and approval is not guaranteed. Extremist politicians are not pleased that von der Leyen and Lagarde, representing the centre-right of politics, will have such influence or that Germany and France remain with a dominant position in EU decision-making. For China, there is the added uncertainty of comments made by the German defence minister, who warned in January that Europe was not paying enough attention to Chinese trade and investment practices. This was despite her being careful not to inflame tensions over the South China Sea on a visit to Beijing last October. However, she has been equally critical of US President Donald Trump, telling the newspaper Die Zeit, “America is more than its presidents”.
Although the United States postponed wider tariffs against China when President Xi Jinping met Trump at the Group of 20 summit last month, negotiations over the trade war will remain difficult and Beijing needs to have the best possible ties with the EU. But American pressure on its European allies was apparent at the last annual China-EU summit in April, with the Europeans expressing a tougher tone. China acknowledged in the joint statement the need to address EU concerns about its industrial policy
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Beijing and the EU are united in the need for multilateralism and there will be no change with the new leadership. But what von der Leyen and Lagarde say can affect sentiments, markets and the euro and they have to quickly gain an understanding of their roles, laying out visions and policies to ensure the EU’s unity and economic growth. China, with the world’s second-biggest economy, has an important part to play.
